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Standing a mere stone's throw from the Eternal Hearth, the edifice was supposed to be a monument to the friendship between the only two sapient species in the galaxy, and to the yinrih who built it, it was just that, but to most humans visiting the holy world ...

Fr. Shaheen took a drag of his cigarrette as he stared up at the night sky. A few stars were just bright enough to shine through the gray haze cast by the street lights in town. Just at the edge of the trailer's porch light sat an old foundation where a sizeab...

“I see we’ve got a bigger crowd than usual. Welcome, everyone, to this meeting of the Erickson Amateur Radio Club. I guess word got around that one of our little visitors is going to be giving a presentation about their faster than light communication network....

The hot Texas sun beat down on the two people sitting outside the root beer stand. Only one of them was a human. Bob the human looked to his right at the half wall next to his chair. There, lying on his belly, straddling the wall like a raccoon resting on a tr...

Ron sat in an overstuffed armchair hunched over an iPad, stylus in hand. The tablet's screen cast a feeble bluish-white glow over the rough popcorn ceiling of his darkened living room. The midnight silence was punctuated by the quiet ticks of a cheap wall cloc...

“…another record-breaking afternoon, with temperatures throughout the region surpassing the 90-degree mark. A cold front is set to bring relief to central and southeast Texas later this evening but looks like there may be some severe weather along with the coo...

THUMP I stood next to the wall, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the increasingly urgent churning growls coming from my gut. There were no chairs in this waiting room, none my butt could sit in, anyway. I took my phone out of my ...

The main core of the network stretched out before me: rack upon rack of black boxes extending into the distance, their chassis scintillating with link lights blinking softly as packets rushed in and out of each interface. Meticulously bundled cables of various...

The golden rays of the westering sun soak into my fur, and I feel the warm sand under my palms erode as gentle waves lap at my paws. «How long have I been standing here?» I wonder. A whisper responds, «It doesn't matter. There is no before, no after. There is ...

“I got some reeeeeaaal good stuff this time.” My dealer glances furtively to either side, then pulls a clear baggie with bright yellow powder from his wallet. I reach for the goods, but he pulls the baggie away. “Nah-uh! You already got your first hit for free...

This was an exercise to see how quickly I could write without obsessively rereading every sentence five times. It's just a little backstory on why Greg from Everybody Poops Together had to use the bathroom so bad. I had to chuckle at the mundanity of it. When ...

It was a tower of crap. Well, OK, it wasn't exactly crap, more processed solid waste suspended in a gel matrix. And I suppose it wasn't exactly a tower either, though I'm not sure what you'd call it. There's no “up” in zero-G, so it could just as easily be lon...

He glanced nadirward through the observation window at the green and blue surface of the planet. A river, coruscating in Focus's rays, wound through the verdant jungle passing below. It was THE river, the measure to which all other rivers were compared. It was...

Ron stared up at the metal behemoth looming over him. A nagging itch scraped at some dark corner of his primate brain, a whisper echoing through his genetic memory, from a time when his tiny furtive ancestors cowered in the shadow of giants. The fact that the ...

Orbiting a dwarf planet on the edge of Partisan territory are the remains of a massive megastructure. It looks like the head of a yinrih, wrought in colossal proportions. It was clearly meant to be part of an even larger mechanism, and has been left unfinished...

Tod, brushing a knot out of his tail: «Sometimes I think this coat isn't worth the hassle.» Jim: “You know there are humans who would kill to have your fur.” Tod: «Just as long as they don't kill ME.» Jim: “Eh, stay away from Cruella Deville and you'll be fine...

The data center was enveloped in uncanny stillness. The hearthkeepers had cut the power to the whole region hours earlier in advance of the enemy's arrival. The backup generators had endured mere minutes before dying in their turn, leaving the anchorite's cham...